Black And White Themes
Black and White
Black and White is a novel written by Paul Volponi. The story is set in Queens, New York City. It was first published in 2005 and has won a large number of literary prizes. The main characters are Eddie and Marcus, star players of their high school basketball team. Eddie is white and Marcus is black. They have risen above the racial differences and are best friends. They think that nothing is going to stop them fulfilling their dream – getting a sports scholarship to a prestigious university and going on to play professional basketball.
It is the beginning of their final term in high school. The school is soon finished, which of course calls for celebration. There is just one problem: how to find enough money to pay for …show more content…
Friendship is probably the theme that is the most “visible”. That is because of the fantastic friendship between Marcus and Eddie. They have, as I have said before, risen above the racial differences and are best friends. They do not live in very rich families, so they do not have very much money. When they do not have the money to pay for college, they have to stake everything out in one effort. They have to go all out for sport and try to get a college scholarship. Later when they do not have money to pay for the trips at school, they decide to do perform crime to get money. When they get arrested, the book takes a look again on the racial differences. This time it is in court. We can see that white people are treated better than black people. Eddie does not need to spend so much time in jail before court that Marcus has to. Eddie’s lawyer is putting a lot more effort in for Eddie, than Marcus’ lawyer is doing. In the book, the black youths X and Moses say that white people are able to escape imprisonment by pulling strings and knowing influential people. There is a tendency for the criminal justice system to work in favor of white people, but the reasons are complex. Marcus also notices when he is on Rikers Island, which is a prison, that there were black people wall to wall except for a few Spanish people. My opinion is that friendship and racial differences is the two themes that the book focuses the most
Black and White is a novel written by Paul Volponi. The story is set in Queens, New York City. It was first published in 2005 and has won a large number of literary prizes. The main characters are Eddie and Marcus, star players of their high school basketball team. Eddie is white and Marcus is black. They have risen above the racial differences and are best friends. They think that nothing is going to stop them fulfilling their dream – getting a sports scholarship to a prestigious university and going on to play professional basketball.
It is the beginning of their final term in high school. The school is soon finished, which of course calls for celebration. There is just one problem: how to find enough money to pay for …show more content…
Friendship is probably the theme that is the most “visible”. That is because of the fantastic friendship between Marcus and Eddie. They have, as I have said before, risen above the racial differences and are best friends. They do not live in very rich families, so they do not have very much money. When they do not have the money to pay for college, they have to stake everything out in one effort. They have to go all out for sport and try to get a college scholarship. Later when they do not have money to pay for the trips at school, they decide to do perform crime to get money. When they get arrested, the book takes a look again on the racial differences. This time it is in court. We can see that white people are treated better than black people. Eddie does not need to spend so much time in jail before court that Marcus has to. Eddie’s lawyer is putting a lot more effort in for Eddie, than Marcus’ lawyer is doing. In the book, the black youths X and Moses say that white people are able to escape imprisonment by pulling strings and knowing influential people. There is a tendency for the criminal justice system to work in favor of white people, but the reasons are complex. Marcus also notices when he is on Rikers Island, which is a prison, that there were black people wall to wall except for a few Spanish people. My opinion is that friendship and racial differences is the two themes that the book focuses the most